First teams settle in at Youth Olympic Village

The Youth Olympic Village was officially opened yesterday morning, as the first batch of Youth Olympic Games (YOG) athletes arrived and took up residence in the premises.

The village, which consists of 10 of Nanyang Technological University's halls of residence, as well as the National Institute of Education campus, will house over 5,000 YOG athletes and officials from now until Aug 26.

It will also be the venue for five of the seven components of the Games' Culture and Education Programme, which aims to communicate to YOG athletes the cultural values of the global community.

The village was opened by its mayor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports Teo Ser Luck, with his two deputy mayors, former national athletes C. Kunalan and Joscelin Yeo.

The trio were also joined by Mr Ng Ser Miang, chairman of the Singapore YOG Organising Committee, and Mr Gilbert Felli, the International Olympic Committee's executive director for the Olympic Games.

The first delegation to arrive at the village was the Zimbabwean contingent.

They touched down in Singapore early yesterday morning, and proceeded straight to the village to check in.